Unai Emery provides Ollie Watkins injury update with Aston Villa’s title charge in jeopardy | OneFootball

Unai Emery says Ollie Watkins is back available after a hamstring scare as Aston Villa look to get back to winning ways at Bournemouth.

The 30-year-old, who has scored eight goals in 33 appearances in all competitions this season, limped off 35 minutes into last Thursday's Europa League match against RB Salzburg.

Watkins missed the surprise 1-0 home defeat to his former club Brentford but the England international could lead the line at Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon.

Asked if the striker would be available at the Vitality Stadium, Villa manager Emery said: "Yes. He rested last week because he had a small injury and he was not ready to play.

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Ollie Watkins (right) will be fit to feature at Bournemouth this weekend (AFP via Getty Images)

"But this week progressively he was joining us, training normally, and today he trained normally."

John McGinn, Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara and Andres Garcia remain absent for Villa, who enter the weekend third in the Premier League, seven points behind leaders Arsenal.

January signing Alysson is not ready to make his debut but Amadou Onana could start having been an unused substitute against Brentford.

"Amadou Onana, he was not 100 per cent last week," Emery added. "Lamare Bogarde is always doing his task and helping us a lot but needs to continue getting better."

Meanwhile, Cherries boss Andoni Iraola rejected suggestions the club's January transfer window will have any bearing on his future at Bournemouth with his contract due to expire in the summer.

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Andoni Iraola rejected suggestions the club's January transfer window will have any bearing on his future at Bournemouth (AFP via Getty Images)

The Cherries lost Antoine Semenyo to Manchester City last month but were also busy with new signings as they brought in Alex Toth, Rayan and Ademide Solanke as well as goalkeepers Fraser Forster and Christos Mandas.

With the club continuing to build a young core, Iraola was asked in a press conference ahead the visit of Villa if they would make it more difficult for him to potentially walk away in the summer.

"You are making it sound like I am like almost testing the club, sign very good players so I can stay," Iraola said in response. "And from my side, it's not like this. I think I try to help the club to sign the better players we can. And we've tried to do this in the winter market.

"Some players we haven't been able to sign, others yes, like in every market. And now the market is not the important thing for me.

"The important thing is the performances, how we build a team, how we play games, how we can continue getting points. And this is the substantial part."

The Cherries remain without Marcus Tavernier, Justin Kluivert, Julio Soler, Tyler Adams and Ben Gannon-Doak for Saturday's match, but David Brooks could return from an ankle injury.